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My hair, that is. Yes, I finally got a hair cut again. It’s been almost five months and was driving me a little nuts. It used to be well past my shoulders(this was a few years ago). I don’t know how I ever handled that. Also got my new glasses yesterday.

went from this(can’t see the back, but it’s down to my neck)…

…to this

The boy got new glasses too

and then a haircut…and red spikes

Not much else going on this week. Just trying to finish up goals for the month. I think I’ll get there with most of them.

Primary: High on Loving You – 1st draft – 12767/~35000 words, 4659 this week. I only have 3 more scenes to write, so this isn’t going to get even closer to 35000 words to finish it.

“Anna, please come inside,” he said. “Let’s talk about this inside. You don’t have to go.”
“I do,” she insisted. “Because I can’t accept any less than everything from you, not when I’m willing to give it all to you. That’s not fair to me, Morgan. I’m tired of giving everything to everybody and hardly getting anything back. And I’m exhausted enough right now to give in without much of a fight. So, I’m going home and sleeping and spending the holiday with my family, just like you need to do.”

Secondary: Side Projects – 5000 words– 2010/5000 words I’m doing this a little differently this month. Working on the one I plan to post to Patreon, then I’ll start on the others.

Melanie & Garren – 2010/~1500 words, 585 this week

Tertiary: Jonas & Isaac – 15 pages – 9.75/15 pages

Stretch: By the Gun – 2500 words

Editing:

Primary: Stained Blood – Beta edits as they come in–

Secondary: Flames of Renewal –Finish edits& polish.Find beta readers– Now I’m looking for beta readers. This is the second book in the series, there are references to book 1, but you could probably read it without having read it(and it would be good to know if anything is too confusing if you haven’t read the first). This one is about James, a fire investigator, who is finally getting a second chance at love, and Teresa, who is also trying to start over. If anyone’s interested in reading it, let me know.

Tertiary: Edit short stories for 2(maybe) collections(not submissions, my own collections) – Gathered all the bits of stories together, read through ‘Mistaken Meeting’, started edits. have added 1441 words.

Stretch: Law of Choice – send to CP – have a message to her to see if she’s ready for it.

Reading:

Primary: Read 20 books– 15/20

Fall of the Titan(Christina Ochs) – Carrying this one over from January. At 45%.

Until We Touch(Susan Mallery) – Started this last Tuesday afternoon. On page 285/376

Blood of Ashlin(Rachel O’Laughlin) – Started reading this Thursday afternoon. At 23%

Apprentice in Death(J.D. Robb) – Started reading this Friday afternoon. On page 215/343

It’s time for another A-Z Challenge. Well, not quite. But it is time to reveal this year’s theme.

I’ve done fire and snapshots of characters from my various series. And last year I did a serial for my Riders of Justice series. So, this year I had to come up with something different. Not completely different, but a little bit of a shift.

So, without further ado…

DRUMROLL

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This year’s theme is Renewing the Flame. I’ll be posting about a different character in my Flames series each day. Most of them appear in Flames of Renewal, the next book in my Flames series, which I’m hoping to have out at or just after the end of April. Some don’t have much of a part in that book, though I might write something up that happens off the page during that time.

For each post, I’ll have their name, age, description and a short bio. As well as a snippet they are in(or as I said, something I write up that happens off the page).

Isaac wrapped the green scarf around his neck before stepping outside. The wind still cut through him, so he hurried to his car. All he could think about right now was getting to Jonas.

He couldn’t seem to hit even one green light on the way over though. He swore softly as he had to stop once again. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel while he waited for the light to turn again. He glanced once into the rearview mirror then had to look back again.

No. That had to be a mistake. It couldn’t really be him back there. Isaac looked once again as he turned onto Jonas’ street, but he didn’t see the face he thought he recognized. He must have imagined it.

“Letting your fear get to you again,” he murmured. He needed to stop that. His father was not following him through the city. He’d only wanted to frighten Isaac the other day.

And it had worked. He couldn’t let it anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt was “green”. This fits in just a little ahead of where I’m at in writing the story. And, yeah, trouble is heading their way.

So, it’s not quite Spring yet. But, this weekend it is time to change our clocks forward. Bleh. I much prefer falling back, but oh well. I’ll adjust within probably a week or so.

I also sprung forward with my goals this week. I had all of this week’s goals met by Thursday. Which kind of ended up being a good thing. I fell asleep on the couch around 8 Thursday night. Woke up around 10 and went to bed. Usually I don’t have a problem falling back to sleep. This time I couldn’t. Finally did around 2:30 and woke up at 4. didn’t get up, though, and fell back asleep until just after 6. When it’s time for the kids to start getting up and getting ready for school. *sigh8 There went my idea for some bonus words. Instead I decided to use Friday for knitting, reading, and working on my A-Z posts. I now have posts scheduled to go up the first week of April. And week 2’s posts are drafted.

She thought she heard her mom say, “Candace was right,” but the words were muffled through the blanket.
“What’s Skittles telling you now?”
“Stop calling your sister that. You know she doesn’t like it.”
Anna finally pulled the blanket down below her chin. Her mom was smiling down at her. “You know she’d think something was wrong if I stopped.” She didn’t like the line furrowing into her mom’s forehead despite that smile on her face. “Stop worrying. I’m going to be fine. I’ve had my heart broken before.”

Secondary: Side Projects – 5000 words – 819/5000 words I’m doing this a little differently this month. Working on the one I plan to post to Patreon, then I’ll start on the others.

Melanie & Garren – 819/~1000 words, 517 this week

Tertiary: Jonas & Isaac – 15 pages– 3.5/15 pages

Stretch: By the Gun – 2500 words

Editing:

Primary: Stained Blood – Beta edits as they come in – got Chapter 9 back on Thursday. Copied over 117/117 comments, started edits on Friday. Finished them on Tuesday, including splitting a scene into 2 and changing POV of the second part from Barrett’s to Deryn’s. Added 1901 words.

Pretty much all the snow we’ve gotten recently had melted on Tuesday. We’ll probably get more before spring is actually here(we actually did get another dusting Tuesday night). But, my daughter(10) was extremely upset that it didn’t look like winter anymore. Me? I don’t mind at all.

I’ve had a fairly laidback week so far. I shut off my alarm after finishing the first draft of Green Hills & Smoky Fields last week. And I’ve left it off this week. I still tend to be awake before it goes off(though I slept an hour later Tuesday morning). So, I’ve still been getting a good bit done. I’ll turn it back on for next month, though.

Now, it’s Wednesday, so you all know what that means!! Yep, it’s WiPPet time again. I’ve got more from Jonas & Isaac’s story for you today. I have 6 paragraphs(2+4). This picks up a little after last week’s. Jonas has gone to his room, claiming to be tired, so he’s going to rest until dinner. There’s more to it than that, which even his mother realizes, and tries to do something about.

Isaac had forgotten most of the Spanish he’d learned in high school. But, the one word was easy, and he’d heard the other from Isabelle aimed at all of her children enough times to remember what it meant. “He is stubborn,” Isaac agreed. “But, I don’t think you’d want him any other way.”

Isabelle smiled softly at him. “I could say the same to you.”

Isaac felt the heat rise to his cheeks and turned away. “Maybe I should go.”

“Yes,” Isabelle said, shocking him. “To his room. To talk to him. I think you both need it.”

She turned away and headed into the kitchen. Isaac just stood there for a moment, torn between following her instructions and retreating to the living room to wait for Toby to arrive. Jonas was right, he did need to speak to Toby. Find out if there was a way to keep his father away.

He blew out a breath. Isabelle was right, too. Damn these Pederas and all their rightness. He snorted out a laugh at the thought. Then, he headed down the hallway to Jonas’ room.

Is his mom right? Is this what they need? Will the talk do any good?

Color Code:

Monthly Goal Met/Finished

Weekly Goal Met

Progress Made

Nothing Done

Set Aside

Plotting:

Primary: Flames of Knowledge – Back Stories

Secondary: Flames of Knowledge – Plot Summaries

Tertiary: Flames of Knowledge – Story Toolkit

Stretch: Flames of Knowledge – Outline: Act 1

Stretch2: Green Hills & Smoky Fields1 – Outline: Act 4

Stretch3: Green Hills & Smoky Fields2 – Brainstorm

Stretch4: Green Hills & Smoky Fields2 – Character back stories(for 2 characters, carrying over other 4 from first book) – Started Desmund’s back story. Have about 2.5 pages written.

Writing:

Primary: Green Hills & Smoky Fields – 1st draft – 17604/~25000 words,

Distance started to grow between them and the shore. Bridgette’s chest clutched, and she wished she was still on that land. A man standing down the railing drew her attention. Sun glistening off his hair, making it appear nearly gold. And she thought those were tears shimmering on his cheeks. But, he turned away before she could be sure. His body jerked as he moved, and she realized it was a heavy limp causing that motion not the slight rocking as the ship found its way out of the harbor.

Bridgette may not know who this is, but if Torin had turned his head, he would have recognized him. 😉

Stretch: By the Gun – 2500 words(will work on this when I finish Primary goal) – 2434/2500 words, 1690 this week

She ground her teeth at the name. She hated it, absolutely hated it. Her father had called her his Rosie, and it felt like a whip strike to hear it from this man’s mouth. Nothing she did would get him to stop, though. In fact, she thought he used it as a way to torment her. And it worked.

Editing:

Primary: Flames of Renewal – CP edits once I get it back

Secondary: Stained Blood – Beta edits as they come in

Tertiary: Protecting the Heart – Transfer to Scrivener– 7/9 chapters

Stretch: Melanie & Garren – revise & post to Patreon

Reading:

Primary: Read 20 books – 18/20

Into the Black(Ava Jae) – Started this Sunday morning. Finished it Tuesday afternoon. LOVED it. Cannot wait for the final book in the trilogy to come out.

Burn for Me(J.H. Croix) – Started this Tuesday afternoon. At 28%. Not all that invested in this one, so not sure I’ll continue it.

Secondary: Listen 5 books – 7/5

A Gathering of Shadows(V.E. Schwab) – Started this last Tuesday morning. On Chapter 26/60

Lion in the Valley(Elizabeth Peters) – Started this Monday morning. On Chapter 3/14

Yes, that’s right! It’s November 1! That actually means a couple things for me. First, it’s the start of another NaNoWriMo. Of course, that’s pretty much every month for me(there are only 3 months I haven’t written at least 50k, one of those I was only short about 50 words). But, I still get excited about the official challenge every year. And this year, I’m actually not being a rebel and working on several projects/something already in progress like the last few years. As of this morning, I have a bright blank slate to work on. 😀 I tried to stay up to start it at midnight. Yeah, I made it to 10. This should not be a surprise to anyone. I used to be able to stay up late and get up early. Anymore it’s only the getting up early part.

November 1 also means yesterday was Halloween! Okay, I don’t really get that excited about it. We live out in the country, and we don’t really decorate for it. Who would see it anyway? But, the kids like dressing up, and we take them into town to visit houses. We don’t do themed costumes(unless the kids want to be something from the same thing). One year they were Elsa and Olaf from Frozen. So, that worked out. This year the boy picked Marshall(from Paw Patrol). The girl wanted to be Everest(also Paw Patrol) but we couldn’t find a costume in her size. She ended up being the Pink Power Ranger. That was actually surprising because she usually rolls her eyes when the boy watches one of the many versions of it. But, it was her choice. We walked for a little less than an hour, and they got quite a bit of candy. But, it was pretty cold out(no snow at least, so that’s something).

The third thing November means is that it’s almost my birthday! Yes, on Sunday, I’m going to be the big 3-3(wait, is that a big deal? Probably not). Another year older. Woohoo(I mean that both sincerely and sarcastically, if that’s possible). No big plans, though I do hope to get my hair cut again this weekend(it’s getting shaggy and driving me a bit nuts).

But, for now, it’s WiPPet Wednesday!! And time to visit with Jonas & Isaac again. Since it’s my birthday month, I’m taking the digits of my upcoming age and adding them together(3+3 = 6) and giving you 6 paragraphs from the next scene. Jonas is trying to make sense of what happened in that moment between him and Isaac and what to do about it.

Then, Isaac had shown up. He hadn’t realized he’d been there so long. And just a hand on his leg had sent him spinning. God, he was a loser. How many times would he have to tell himself it would be better to stay away from Isaac before his body believed it?

“Then, why are you so quiet? You’ve been excited the last times I picked you up. Today you are subdued. What is different?”

“Nothing.” Everything. But, he couldn’t even explain that to himself, let alone his mother. Maybe he was just going to have to stay away from the youth center until he got his head and feelings sorted out.

Yeah, that was what he’d do.

Sure, you will, Jonas. Sure you will. 😉

And now for how I finished up the month of October:

Color Code:

Monthly Goal met/finished

Weekly Goal met

Progress made

Nothing done

Set aside

Plotting:

Green Hills & Smoky Fields – Story Toolkit, Outline Act 1 in Scrivener– Outlined first 5 chapters(Act 1) on Monday. Chapter 5 has about 8 scenes in it currently, so it will probably be split into at least 2 chapters, maybe more. I’ll outline acts as I finish one up. On Target

But, she shook her head. She wasn’t sure she could count on that. And was afraid it would just mean she’d end up hurting him more in the future. She had to put an end to it before that happened. But, she wasn’t sure how to say any of that to her dad, let alone Austin. But, since he was now heading toward her, she’d have to figure it out.

Whatever It Takes – 465 words

Jayla could only stare at Carisa as she finally wound down. She just didn’t have any words. What could she say to that?
Absolutely nothing.

High on Loving You – 2685 words

She just shrugged one shoulder and climbed into her seat. He waited for her to buckle in before he closed her door and climbed into the front again. He flexed his hands around the steering wheel a few times before finally turning the key in the ignition. Raina didn’t speak on the drive home. Morgan thought about trying to pry answers about her day out of her, but he’d never had to do that before. Usually she volunteered all the information he could want. Even more than that most days.
When they got to the house, she walked just as quietly into the house and went back to her room. She didn’t even ask him for a snack. She always had a snack when she got home from school. He needed to get to the bottom of what was wrong before his little girl faded away into nothing more than a ghost.
He just didn’t even know where to start.

Crochet: Dreamy Scarf – I need “Dreamy” yarn for this(I could probably use another kind, but the pattern is based on using this yarn) and I haven’t found it yet. So haven’t started this. It will get moved to November’s goals.

Since I don’t have the yarn for my other crochet project, I decided to do up some “prayer squares”. They were talking about these in church the other week, and I figured it would be easy enough if I could find a pattern(there are quite a few out there). So started one on Monday. Have 6/20 rows done.

So, it was a pretty good month overall, even though there were a couple things i didn’t get to. I seem to be finding the best way to organize my day, and those Mellow Mondays are going well(though my definition of Mellow is apparently broken. haha).

Round 3 of A Round of Words in 80 Days is over today. So, it’s time to evaluate how I did. I may also check in on how I’m doing on this year’s goals at the end of this.

Plotting:

Green Hills & Smoky Fields(this may end up being the series title and I’ll have a different name for the first story): Story Toolkit(it’s already plotted, but that was before I started doing the Toolkit)– I’ve finished one(of three) character arc worksheets. 8a/18

Drafting:

Heart of Christmas – 30000 words/1st draft– I finished this on 9/6.

Still Burning – 30000 words– 27214/30000 words

Whatever It Takes(Jayla & Carisa) – 30000 words– 24787/30000

High on Loving You – 30000 words– 24724 words

By the Gun – 30000 words(this should take me into part 2) – 23148 words, I am working on Part 2 now.

Side Projects – Add 30000 words– 27500 words

Story a Day(September) – Add 30 stories– 18/25 stories. this one is being handled differently than the main one in May, so there’s actually only going to be about 25 stories

Editing:

Stained Blood – Beta edits– got Chapter 2 back the other day. Transferred comments into Scrivener and will be starting edits today.

Flames of Renewal – CP edits– Still don’t have this back.

In the Moonlight – Read Through, Revisions, Polish–

Hang On – Polish & Submit–

Midas’ Daughter – Fill-In Details, Read Through, Revise, & Polish–

Reading:

Listen: 13 books-17/13 books

Read: 90 books– 79/90, not quite but I’ll probably get there by the end of the month.

A good bit of green, some blue, and only one red. So, not a bad round over all. 😀